


Expected

by Knitzkampf



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Chewie visits sometimes, F/M, Han and Leia are settled down, Happily Married, Luke visits, New Republic Peacetime, Post-RotJ
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-19
Updated: 2019-01-19
Packaged: 2019-10-12 18:41:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17472899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Knitzkampf/pseuds/Knitzkampf
Summary: A light and loving look at Han and Leia in the future. It's an extension of an earlier story, Nobody But Yourself, so I suppose it's set in that universe. Post-ROTJ, several years later.





	Expected

**Author's Note:**

> Hi there! I don't really have a head canon for Han-Leia, but as I was writing this I thought it easier to adapt it to how I had another fic, Nobody But Yourself, wrap up for them. So there are a few places, events, and names that originate from that story but are probably not essential to this one. I hope you enjoy!

Endor had been where the Rebel Alliance achieved victory and ended the war.

Also on Endor, Luke Skywalker had told Leia Organa that first and foremost, they were twins, and secondly, that Darth Vader, Face of the Enemy, had sired them.

And so in the years that followed, Leia continued on with her own war. How to win peace, when the other side was dead? How to be a victor, when the other side wouldn't fight?

He- her... the one with no face really, just the black masked helmet- had saved Luke. He had a name: Anakin Skywalker, and he had a message for her. "Tell your sister you were right," were his last words. Luke heard them, and he relayed them to Leia when they were reunited on Endor.

She was the Princess of Alderaan, a leader of the Rebellion, and he was Lord of the Sith, second to the Emperor. Soldier to soldier, Leia hated Darth Vader. She had no feelings for Anakin Skywalker, as Luke did, because he wasn't that person anymore. That man, who may have been in love, who may have wanted to start a family, became Darth Vader. And he didn't just espouse political ideals Leia rejected. No, he had killed. He had killed children.

Leia was in love. Almost the moment her Pentumvirate duties expired, she had wed Han. And she was still fighting a war, her own private one, and she didn't want it. Because what if she wanted to start a family, like her faceless father had done years ago? Would she hurt her child? Would it hate her?

One thing she had learned in fighting the Rebellion: A war couldn't be won alone. It needed help. She didn't know this at first. She would let her heart blacken and wither than be distracted from the fight if Luke or Han or Chewie hadn't kept pulling her back. But saying that to herself, those words, _black heart,_ she knew how Han would respond, his irreverent talent for solving problems: _bit of a family resemblance there, Sweetheart._

Han took a wrench to her worries, smashed them away with honesty and humor. Luke spoke them out loud. "You know what I did when he told me he was my father?" he said to her one day, sly and sad, with a smile. "I jumped. I actually thought to kill myself. So you're doing pretty well. But I had time after that, to absorb it all. Settle it in me. You will, too."

A few years after Endor, where Luke had told her who she truly was, what she thought she was- daughter of a monster- she and Han had married, and though they hadn't actively thought of children yet, beings asked, especially human beings. Some politely, like Carlist Rieekan: "Do you think you will start a family?" Others kind of rude and funny, like Wedge: "So when can I expect you to pop one out, eh? Have a little one running around."

The questions made both Han and Leia a little uncomfortable. "It's none of their kriffing business," Han complained.

"We can tell them it's a sexless marriage if it bothers you so much," Leia simpered, leaning into him and not meaning a word of it.

"No!" Han said, outraged.

"So it's okay to admit we're having sex, but not to reveal we use contraception," Leia summarized.

Han thought about it. "Yes," he said.

There was something there, naggingly interesting, the idea of family, this difference in freedom of sex in and outside a marriage. Leia's title was now a courtesy, no more an office, but she still had a leadership role for the Survivors of Lost Alderaan, and she wondered in which direction she should take them.

They were gathered on Kirrana, those that wanted to be together, a diaspora called Honorary Alderaan. Where once Alderaani had carefully guarded traditions, the sudden and complete loss of their homeworld showed them nothing mattered anymore. Their culture was changing, and it was throwing caution to the wind. _Enjoy life while one could, because it ended._ Their Princess had married a Corellian, not even a noble one at that, but she told them she loved him and that was enough.

They would like to see a baby, though. Because although life ended, it also continued, and it was important to create the first generation of Honorary Alderaani.

When she thought of Alderaan, Leia was tempted. She wanted to demonstrate that life continued, because, of all the truths she knew, that was the truest. And, also, it was like flipping an obscene finger toward her father. _I'll show you, you bastard._ Was that enough of a reason though? It seemed... angry. And impersonal, of a Princess. Nobles on Alderaan had arranged marriages, and they _bore_ children; they didn't decide to start a family with the one they loved. It was a responsibility.

If she did, would she uphold the sanctity of marriage? Sex for the family, unmentioned and culturally tolerated? Or would sex be an expression of self-identity? She decided on the latter, because that was how Han made her feel.

Once, at dinner when Luke happened to visit, even he asked. "Can I be an Uncle?"

Han threw up his hands. "Not you, too! Get your own offspring!"

Leia liked these dinners, with just her brother and husband and Chewbacca. The talk flowed as freely as the wine, and they didn't happen often enough. Neither Luke nor Han was schooled in philosophy, but they certainly had opinions, and Chewie was just wise.

"It's the nature of our species," she mused. "Deep down, there's this instinctive need to see the human race procreate, and in this society, marriage suits that purpose. It makes humans happy to see a child coming."

"Marriage legitimizes the act of mating," Chewie said. "It should have purpose."

"Do you hear that, Sweetheart?" Han tossed over. "Our sex is legal."

Luke had his head cocked, listening to Leia's words but trying to hear the real answer. "So are you saying you feel the instinct to reproduce? That's a yeah?"

His casual speech made her laugh. Han had his mouth open to retort, but Leia put her hand up. She had the perfect answer. "It's Maybe," she told Luke, sliding forward with her elbows on the table, her eyes wide and giving a hint.

Luke was a little slow. "Oh, you're taking a Force approach," Luke finally realized. "Well, me of all people can't argue with that." Luke was in a similar position as Leia, his a little more heady and serious. He was to be the new originator of exemplifying how the Force was wielded. His time with the Rebellion was a fight for his own soul, Leia thought, looking at his soft blue eyes now, and he advocated what he called Maybes, paths of destiny the Force didn't bother to choose.

When Leia was tempted, to kind of score one for the team in her private war, her father would raise the specter of his ugly black mask and strike. She knew she was his daughter, that her worries were her, in her, and she would forget to let Han smash it, and Luke wouldn't know to vocalize it, and her heart would turn a little black. She expected not to be able to conceive, that the galaxy forbid it; that her lineage sort of deformed her.

It might be a subconscious dare to her biological father, she often suspected of herself. I'll show you how to parent. So she was lax in her contraception, because she didn't think it could happen but maybe she wanted it to, and it happened, and she got a little panicky at first.

The med droids treated her like everyone else. They found nothing unusual in that the daughter of Anakin Skywalker had managed to conceive. Medically, she was sound. The pregnancy was text book clinical. She left the office a little dazed, expecting alarms, expecting to be rushed off to some lab, expecting a fight- for her own life, or for the baby's. She still wasn't sure.

But they sent her home. Told her to get some rest, take vitamins; if she had any questions or bleeding to not hesitate to call. She didn't have to restrict her schedule and they would see in her in a month. Han didn't say a word, and it was like his eyelids had been stretched open to permanent surprise. She was a little miffed at him, for he knew why she made the appointment. Apparently the verification had left him in a daze too, and he put his hand on her lower back as they exited the examination room, and she thought she heard him murmur over her head, "- I'll be-"

She couldn't ask him what he meant, because they were out in the corridor, and there were a lot of med droids, and female beings, many of them pregnant, and she decided to wait him out.

All through the speeder lot they were silent. He stood at her side as she got in and then went over to his. As Han closed the canopy of the speeder and they were cut off from the outside world, or so it felt, he looked at her.

"We're going to have a baby?" he finally asked, as if he had spent the last forty-five minutes with his wife undressed and still had no clue what the word 'pregnant' meant.

She nodded back at him. His- she thought at first it was dubiousness, then apprehension, then read insecurity plainly in his eyes, and she was no longer irritated with him. She needed that reaction. She always felt serene in the presence of other's fear. It went back to her royal training. "Apparently we are."

"Wow. And they sent us home." He ran a hand through his hair.

She felt similarly, but once it was spoken aloud she knew how ridiculous it sounded. "What are they supposed to do with us?"

"You know." He gestured out the window. "Without anyone to watch us. Watch over us. Make sure we do it right."

Leia nodded. "Nine months is a long time. They didn't make it sound so hard." She waved a flimsi at him. "I have this to read. And vitamins. Otherwise... But beings do it all the time, have babies. Right? We never called med droids when the taun tauns hit their breeding season," she reminded him of their time on the Hoth, where it was so cold the Alliance used a native beast of burden to help operate the base.

"Right." Han was bolstered. "I would say it could go wrong, seeing as it's you and me. But-" he looked at her again, his expression dawning. "I was thinking in there Vader didn't scare me. Or the carbonite. But this. Us."

"A baby isn't an enemy, Han. It's helpless."

"I know," he said, and lapsed into silence. Leia waited. Then he smiled fully, sheepish and beautiful. "I know, Leia. That's what scares me. I'll probably drop it." He looked down on his large hands. "It's on us. All on us. To make a decent human being. I'm just-" He shook his head, unable to continue.

They stared out the window. Outside there was the noise of traffic, beings talking with each other as they walked, and everything suddenly took on a different weight.

Leia took a lecturing breath. "We have the past to draw on. We're not the first, or the only ones. Plenty of beings have had babies. Plenty. You won't drop it. We'll prepare. Read, and study. Ask."

"Like you approach everything," Han nodded. He seemed to finally find value in the way she operated, the opposite of him.

"What are you going to tell the baby when it's born and it's crying," Leia teased. "'Hey, it's me'?"

He smiled again, not as fully, but nostalgically. "This means peace. Doesn't it. To me- we've won peace. Because everything that caused stuff to go wrong for you and me isn't there anymore. There's no more Empire. No more Darth Vader, or bounty hunters. Luke's doesn't need rescuing; he's pretty settled." Leia smiled. "Shit, Sweetheart- you realize how long it's been since we even had a fight?"

Everything Han said was true, but Leia couldn't quite believe it. "You said you're scared?" she wanted to know.

"Scared?" Han pretended indifference.

"Not terrified?"

"Well, yeah." Han turned the speeder on and turned to the controls, but he didn't set it in motion yet.

"What scares you?" Leia put a hand on his arm so that he wouldn't pull out in traffic. She really needed his answer.

Han gazed out the speeder window a long time, watching beings walk about. He took a breath. Leia followed his gaze, understanding. It was like finding an altered universe. "Everything. I'm scared of... " His shoulders lifted and then dropped. "I'm scared I'll screw the kid up," he finished rapidly.

A new thing to expect, now that her biological father, Vader, had taken up her dare: she wouldn't have been surprised if Han demanded some sort of extra testing, make sure there was no such thing as a gene for evil. And she might have asked for the test herself. The moment the med droid had told her she was expecting, Leia had just assumed she shouldered everything because of who she was. "You'll do what?"

"You know," Han fretted. "If it sees me in my underwear, have I scarred it for life. Or when it says it wants to stop taking music lessons, what's the right answer? Do I make it continue for a bit, thinking it's just whining, or do I give in and let it quit? I don't wanna spoil it."

It was fairly astounding, to have Han Solo move from being scared of a fetus to embracing fatherhood in the span of mere minutes. "Calling it 'It' might damage the child I think," Leia said to tease him.

Han acknowledged her ribbing with a nod, and he took the speeder into the air. "Very funny. If I knew what It is, I'd call it proper. When do we find out?"

"Not for a while." Leia opened scrolled through the flimsi. "It has to develop. Look." She waved the flimsi at him, showing a picture. "A human fetus has gills for a while."

"You're kidding." Han flicked his eyes at the flimsi but he didn't get a good look at it because he had to watch where the speeder was going. "I got a lot to learn."

"You don't think... " Leia pressed her lips together. "You said peace. You're not worried, about... the future? And our past? My past?"

"Can't promise a meteorite ain't gonna fall on your head." He flicked his eyes at her again and scowled. "We've been through that. He didn't even raise you. Or Luke. And you fought against him. And won. So it means you're tough, you're a bad ass, and you're good. Just one more thing to add on you, that's all."

"What do you mean, add on me," Leia watched his profile. They didn't talk much of Vader anymore, but it was thrilling when he defended her from him, even now, years past. It was like he still stood in that dining room on Cloud City and tried to empty his blaster into Darth Vader.

"Look at you," Han waved a wrist. "You're always a Princess, and you got elected Senator again. You were a hell of an undercover operative, even a Hutt slave, very briefly-"

"Hutt strangler too, don't forget," Leia put in.

"Even more briefly. And you're married to the only general in the New Republic Army that has a criminal record, your brother is a Jedi Master, you wrote that intergalactic emergency relief bill that passed, and," he shrugged, "now you're a mother."

"You mean something to add to my resume," Leia said, nodding to herself. "The many facets of my being. I can add motherhood."

"Right."

"You put it like that," Leia looked out the window, thinking and imagining. A baby. A child. Trees and swing sets. Rolling on the grass, zooming on wheels and holding hands. Reading together. Wiping tears. Waving goodbye as the child skipped off to school. She smiled gently, still afraid, but every new mother must have been, Leia realized, to be granted such a wonderful responsibility. She showed her careful smile to Han. "I could get excited."

He flashed his grin at her. "So what do you say about music lessons?"

"I say I'm glad you want our child to have them. And they shouldn't quit."

"Okay." Han nodded grimly. "That's our front, then. We're a team, right? Stop whining and go practice."

"We can try and help make it enjoyable," Leia daydreamed. "Maybe offer a different instrument? I don't want to find out what it is," she realized all of a sudden. "Is that alright with you, Han? Somehow knowing what it is takes away from... from- I don't know. The imagining."

"Next Senator or famous musician."

"I just want to try and... and be pregnant. You know? I don't want to jump too fast into the future, when the baby is here. Just- I don't know how often I'll want to do this," she struggled to explain, "and I want to make sure I spend the time focusing on pregnancy."

Han shrugged. "Fine, I guess. We got time to change our minds anyway. Sure. By all means, Sweetheart, enjoy it. The gods know we had fun causing it. Gotta come up with something to call it though, other than It."

Once home, Han toured their home with new eyes. They had made a room for Luke, another for Chewie. They never considered a nursery. But there was an extra sitting room, and an office. "Could build a wall," he remarked to her seriously, and Leia felt a little overwhelmed.

"I'm going to take a shower," she told him.

Han read through the flimsi the med droids had given Leia, while she washed. "It says it can hear," he told her when she reappeared in a robe. She wouldn't go in to the office today. She would take a sick day. A pregnant day. "Well, when it gets ears. When It gets ears." From then on he started talking to the fetus.

"Goodnight, It," he might kiss Leia's stomach before kissing her lips. "Howdy, It," he would say when she got home from the Senate, his palm on her rounded front. "Did your mother yell at anyone today?"

One day when Leia came home, he gave her a swift kiss, "Hey, Sweetheart," for something was bubbling on the cooker and he had to turn back to it. "How's the Boss?"

"Who?" Leia asked. She frowned to herself. Did he mean Mon Mothma, Chancellor of State and therefore over the Senators? Did he mean Leia herself? Or perhaps her administrative assistant, who was so efficient at arranging her schedule?

"Baby Organa Solo," Han said. As nicknames went, perhaps it wasn't his best if he had to explain it. "B-O-S. Need an extra 's' though."

"I'm glad to see you can spell," she had remarked dryly, and although she herself never once said Boss during her pregnancy, she thought it was charming. And sweet.

She granted him his fun because Han nicknamed things he had affection for, and the ones he had for her went back a long way, and after all they had been through, the memories meant a great deal.

As time went by, however, the name Boss seemed more and more appropriate. The demands the fetus placed on her- of which there was no need, she'd assure the baby; it didn't have to demand- were consuming. She had to eat more and better and in odd combinations, get an entire new wardrobe, stop scheduling meetings in the early evening because she needed a nap, and tell her feet she'd see them in a few more weeks.

It had made Han happy. "Good to see you finally taking orders from someone else," he said.

Pregnancy was a marvel. It was uncomfortable, fascinating, sometimes weird. And it was, of all things, unexpectedly healing. Sometimes Leia would sit at the window and look out at the little yellow vineyard flowers that grew so orderly past the borders of their property on Kiranna and feel such a sorrow, joined with such a hope, that it brought her almost to tears. Something about the flowers, a botanical relative of ones that had grown on Alderaan, just... calmed her. They offered a continuity, so matter of fact, so beautiful, never a replacement, but wholly their own. And she would think of herself as a baby, and Han too, and all the loss and pain, which couldn't be replaced and wasn't, but a baby grew out of it on its own, simple and true.

She no longer viewed herself as daughter of a monster. She was a daughter, that much was true. But Anakin Skywalker owned his own wrongs. He was possibly mad, she didn't know. Luke felt their father was grossly misled, possibly too naive. Han flatly called him stupid.

She continued to think of trees, and swing sets. How she would hold hands, and nuzzle noses. And these were memories, she realized, she wanted to pass on, of the two who raised her. Her parents hadn't been perfect. She thought of trees because she hadn't been allowed to climb them- "It's not fitting of a Princess," her mother said, so Leia took Chewie to a grower on Kiranna to select a tree for the yard, because she would teach her child to climb a tree, damn it.

She missed her parents and ached for them to know. _Life has come full circle._

She hadn't wanted to marry when she was a child, she remembered. Stomped her foot once in an argument with her father. Many, many things had changed.

It, memories, or the Boss, made her a little teary. "We don't have family," she sniffed to Han once. "No grandparents to spoil the baby. No cousins to grow up with."

"Family isn't all it's cracked up to be," Han said sagely, but it made her feel even worse. How would she explain Anakin Skywalker?

"We got what we got," he said, unable to console her because he really didn't understand. "Besides, don't let Luke hear you say that. Or Chewie. Or Wicket. You got memories, and an awful lot of history. Heck, our kid'll be studying you in school. You could be show and tell."

"They'll be studying Darth Vader in school, too," Leia said miserably.

"True. Here's an idea, get Mon Mothma to purge the history," Han proposed. "The Jedi were killed in a battle, and Darth Vader...hmm... designed Star Destroyers."

"I won't have any information censored just because a leader doesn't like it. It sounds like the Empire all over again!"

"The _Executor_ was a hell of a ship, though," Han ruminated. He turned his palm over. "A grandfather the kid'll never know. How many times do I have to remind you, Leia? He was a man, and he took a side, the wrong side, and you had balls enough to take the other side and galactic life is better because of you. If anything, the kid'll be proud you're it's mother."

It helped Leia realize she did want her child to know, even if she didn't know how she would reveal it, or when. And it was a score for her side of the war. _My child will know who you are. Which is more than you ever knew of me._

"What'll I tell It about my folks?" Han said. "At least you had a childhood, were loved. And if you listen to Luke, that biohazard of a dad sort of loved you."

She and Han immersed themselves in expecting a baby. They read articles, shopped, discussed schools, though it was years in the future. Han was already starting to baby proof the house and they had a plan for when she went into labor months in advance. As she got larger, she had to admit, she was ready.

Leia sighed one day as she put her shoes on and had to lean back on her palms, letting her feet grope on their own for the shoe opening. They were to attend a reception, and she didn't want to go. She wanted to stay home and organize the cupboard where Han stashed the pots. "I feel so fat."

Han politely leered at her and came to help with the shoes. "That's all baby,"he told her. Then he traced the outline of Leia's body from her shoulders down to her hips. "The way it's supposed to be. It's a good look on you. And-" he went to the back of the seat, "From the back, you can't even tell. So it's all baby. No fat."

"Mm. Everyone is starting to ask what we're going to name the baby," she murmured at him.

"What's their rush?"

"I don't know, but even the protocol droid at the trade conference asked me."

"What's to anyone when we pick a name? And what's a droid care?"

"Exactly. It was _programmed_ chatter. Which means, by about this far along, parents have chosen. Or at least made a list of possible names."

"So what are you saying? We're behind?"

His slight consternation made Leia feel a little better. They'd been so wrapped up in this pregnancy. It seemed every conversation dealt with the baby. "I don't feel behind, do you?” she peered up at him. “I mean, why do we have to have a name? We're enjoying the pregnancy. Why can't we just do that? Why do we have to put a name to it? We don't even know what we're having."

"Right." Han nodded definitively. "I like just thinking of it as Baby Organa Solo. My boss."

"Has anyone asked you?"

"No," Han shook his head. "Just Lando."

"That would qualify as someone," Leia said dryly. "What did he say?"

Han shrugged dismissively. "Asked if we're namin' it Lando. So he don't count."

Leia smiled. "Do you think it's time we starting thinking of names?"

"OK, fine. We'll make a list." Han strode over to the couch and tossed himself in the air, landing with a bounce and his ankles crossed on the kaf table. "Cm'ere." He pulled a small data board from his pants. "Got a stylus?"

"Here." Leia handed him one and joined him, folding a leg under her rear to show she still could, though she had to shift a little to be comfortable. “We're going to be late,” she said, though she didn't care.

“Yeah,” Han agreed. “Screw them. Maybe they'll start wondering why you're absent. Take bets you went into labor. It'll be more entertaining than a speech.”

Han drew a line down the center of the screen. "Okay," he declared. "So we got one side for a girl, and the other for a boy.” He wrote 'Lando' and drew a line through it. "Got one name it's not gonna be."

Leia laughed.

"Luke?" Han suggested.

Leia's face indicated uncertainty. "I don't know. Luke is... Luke. My brother."

"He'd be honored," Han offered.

"He'd be tickled," Leia agreed. "But, he's alive."

"So?"

"Well, on Alderaan, we wait... we don't... we name after the dead. It's bad luck for the living."

"OK." A line went through 'Luke.' "Since we're thinking of Alderaan,” Han suggested, “how about your father? Bail."

Leia nodded slowly. "I like that. I like Bail."

Han nudged her playfully with his elbow, writing at the same time. "Got another father to nominate-"

"Cross that out," Leia ordered. "I'm not naming it Anakin."

"Darth, then," Han said and Leia grabbed a pillow and whacked him with it.

"The baby is not a Sith Lord,” she said sternly. She couldn't be angry, though. He had an uncanny ability to know when she took something too seriously, and was able to knock the issue, not her, off a pedestal.

Han was laughing.

She knew how to get some revenge. "How about a nice, gutteral Wookiee name like Chewbacca?" Leia said. "Would a Wookiee accept a namesake?"

"Not the full name," Han surprised her with an answer. "Along the same lines as bad luck for the living. A nickname, though. Or a variation. Backi."

"Backi?" Leia made a face. "Sounds like a girl's name."

"It's what Malla calls him."

"Really? I hadn't noticed. Did you talk with Chewie about this?" Leia thought back to trips to Kasshyyk and staying with Chewie's family. "Is Chewie another form of nickname?"

"Nah, that was me. Couldn't say his full name when I first met him."

"We have one name so far." Leia unfolded her legs and moved the pillow behind her back.

"There's lots. Carlist, right? You love Rieekan. Or Luke's side. Kenobi. Or his uncle."

"His uncle was named Owen." Leia shrugged. "Maybe. And Kenobi was the last name. Obi Wan. Luke called him Ben."

"Luke was clueless."

Leia smiled. "Don't. He wasn't. He was Luke. He was darling."

"Darling, then," Han scribbled, and Leia picked up another pillow and whacked him again.

"Be serious. We're going to be parents, and we're thinking up joke names for our child."

"Hey, Boss?" Han directed his face at Leia's belly. "We're just kiddin' around. Alright. We got Carlist, Owen, and Bail. Luke should have Ben.”

“He should,” Leia agreed.

“If he ever- what's your fancy word? Procreates.”

“So if it's a girl...” Leia began.

“Your mother,” Han said.

Leia nodded. “Breha. And yours. Calida. It's a pretty name.” She sighed.

“Anyone else?” Han asked. “It's a short list. Not too many female heroes in the war. I don't like the name Mon. No offense.”

“No offense taken,” Leia said mildly. “I had a good, good friend. Winter.” She felt relaxed, even with her swollen feet still in the shoes, and lay her cheek on Han's arm.

“That's a season. You don't name things after seasons on Corellia. Not even pets.”

“You're making that up.”

“Fine, I'll call her Winnie.”

Leia smiled against Han's arm. “You're so accommodating. What else… how about a name in one of our languages? One that means something.”

“Like what?”

“Like, 'good fortune', or hope.”

“Or 'surprise!'” Han flashed his hands.

Leia chuckled but she remained thoughtful. “Do you remember Lucky?”

“Lucky on Hoth?” Han's voice was gruff. “'Course I remember her.”

“It's when I first realized you'd make a good father someday.”

Han snorted. “Pff. Diggin' in the snow for beetles? She imprinted on me.”

“Yes, digging in the snow. And you slept on the hangar floor with her. You never deprived her. You did what you had to ensure she thrived. You were very good to her.”

Han grunted, his playful mood evaporated. “I took her out in the blizzard to find Luke.”

Leia was sad too. “Yes. But you were the only one who went, Han. And there was no other way. And she was past the imprint stage- she had her own young, but she went with you. Because you taught her that. Damn these hormones,” Leia wiped tears from her cheek.

Han tossed the stylus on the table and turned, wrapping Leia in a tight hug. It wasn't hormones, Leia decided. He wasn't crying; tears had rusted in him long ago, but the weight of emotion crushed her to him. They stayed like that a long while, locked in each other's arms.

A clock was ticking and the stupid reception was waiting. Leia said, her voice muffled against his shoulder, “Will I be a good mother?”

Han released her, surprised at her question. “Hell, yes. I knew it… actually I never really thought of you that way. You were too sexy, too distant. Drove me wild and all I thought of was kissing you.” He winked. “Maybe a little more.

“But, now that you ask,” and he drew his legs back on the table. “Any time you were being a Princess. Like the medal ceremony. Or on Anobis. You talked from the other side of loss, you know? It made you… like a goddess. If that ain't motherhood I don't know what is.”

“Hm.” Leia looked down at her hands, folded on her lap and partially hidden from view by her full womb. “How do you say 'lucky' in Corellian?”

“Krall'ta. What about in Alderaani?”

“Pandreia, if it's a girl. Pondrist is the masculine.”

“What'd I do with that stylus? I like Pandreia. You know what, Sweetheart? Let's have 3PO put out a false press release. You stayed home for… for those false contractions.”

Leia kicked off her shoes. “I stayed home to nest.”

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Pandreia Organa Solo was born nine years after the Battle of Yavin.


End file.
